WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

HERE WE GO AGAIN

THE NY TIMES REPORTS:DNA Evidence Frees Man After 15 Years in Prison

WHITE PLAINS, Sept. 20 — In 1990, a jury convicted Jeffrey Mark Deskovic, then 16, of raping, beating and strangling a high school classmate, even though jurors were told the DNA evidence in the case did not point to him.They believed a police detective, who testified that Mr. Deskovic had confessed to the crime. A judge sentenced him to 15 years to life in prison, and at age 17 Mr. Deskovic was locked up.Today, another judge set the 33-year-old Mr. Deskovic free, saying he agreed with his lawyers and the Westchester district attorney that more sophisticated DNA testing showed that someone else had killed and raped Angela Correa in November 1989.When he heard that he was being set free, Mr. Deskovic, who has been arguing his innocence for years, sat speechless for a few minutes. Then he hugged his lawers and walked out of the courtroom.

Afterward, he talked to reporters and others about his overwhelming sense of relief, mixed with anger, over what he has lost by spending almost half his life behind bars for a crime he did not commit.

“I was supposed to finish out my education, begin a career,” he said. “Marry, have a family, spend some time with my family, share the last years of my grandmother’s life with her.”He said his plans to marry his girlfriend were thwarted when he went to prison. His family grew apart.“My family has become strangers to me,” Mr. Deskovic said.

Court records show that the police became suspicious of Mr. Deskovic when he showed unusual interest in the case, telling the police he was investigating the case himself, and visiting the crime scene.A police detective said Mr. Deskovic had confessed.But Mr. Deskovic had pleaded not guilty from the beginning of the case, and DNA evidence from the crime scene indicated he was not involved in the murder of his Peekskill High School classmate, who was 15. Ms. Correa’s body was found in a woods near an elementary school.

Even after he was imprisoned, Mr. Deskovic insisted he had not killed Ms. Correa, taking his case to the Supreme Court, which refused to hear the matter.Finally, with the aid of the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal clinic at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, the Westchester district attorney considered results of more sophisticated DNA evidence that pointed to someone else.Prosecutors ran the results of the testing through a national databank, which turned up a match to another inmate already serving a life sentence for another Westchester murder.Once again Rumpole notes that if the more serious murder cases are supposedly defended by the better defense attorneys, then who is working on the cases of innocent individuals in prison who were represented by "not the best attorneys" on cases involving questionable confessions or tainted eyewitness identifications for crimes like burglary or robbery?

Just a sobering, depressing, nightmarish thought.

How many times does this have to happen before we get it through our thick heads that the criminal justice system is broken and needs to be fixed?We are so entranced with the American ideals of cross examination, the right to remain silent, the burden of proof, and a trial by jury, that we cannot see the forest through the trees. Those ideals while worthy and deserving of praise, do not make up for the fact that thousands of innocent people (if not more) are in prison serving sentences. There are over a million people incarcerated in our country. a five percent error rate means that more than 50,000 innocent people are in prison. See You In Court, trying our best to prevent an injustice from occurring.

My proposal would call for all police officers to have at minimuma four year college degree. The fact that you can start out with a high school degree and end up asa Homicide Detective is just plainwrong. They need more educated copswho are more professional.

"But he confessed to it" would beless likely to be the standard ifyou had some Detectives out therewho had at least studied the phenomenon of false confessionsand/or DNA.

To 7:29 p.m. blogger: Love your idea. Most police start at $38-40k now. Perhaps we could have better prosecutors if the legislature gave us more than $38,317 to start. Better public defenders, too. Once hired, so few stay long enough to be really skilled - and resist the monetary temptations on the 'outside'. Truth be told, for the most part the public gets the public servants they are willing to pay for. I wish it were not so.

it is a crime what they pay asa's. whats really sad is the disparity between asa's and county attorneys. To sit around and bless all the crooked shit the county commission dream you get paid at least 120 grand a few years out of law school. at the sao you are trying murder cases a few years out and you are lucky to crack 60g's

while pd's and asa are both underpaid they should not be paid on the same scale. before all you pd's start your bellyaching, the fact is that you guys are allowed to have outside legal employment that does not conflict with your pd work. asa's are not allowed to do this.

A petition drive to dedicate one of the court rooms at the REGJB to the late Judge Manuel A. Crespo has begun. Also A petition drive to dedicate and rename the "South Dade Justice Center" to the "Manuel A. Crespo Justice Center" has begun. PLEASE CLICK THE LINKS BELOW, We need your help to get the word out:

I doubt that D'arce brought Hernandez to anything he did not take himself to. D'arce could not force him to miss all the judge's meetings or the conferences with his colleagues that he missed. That was his own doing. Aside from that, I am sure that the "Fat Lady" has not sang her last song on this Chapter of judicial corruption. That is right, judicial as in sitting judges with the help of Bar Associations and Treasurers. Can't wait to see the last act.

Equanimity, Flexibility, Mercy which is balanced, not overwhelmed by Retribution, Creativity and Engaging and Sense of Humor. These are perhaps some of the necessary traits that make up "great judges." But we all seem to have various and divergent opinions as to the subject. I'd like to throw it out there as a possible discussion. What are the hallmarks of a great judge? Who is the best judge in your book, and why? How would you defend that? How would you strive to be if you were given the privelege

A retracted confession shall not be admitted into evidence unless A)there exists wholly independent evidence corroborating the confession and B) the court finds a substantial basis for the truth of the confession.

on another more important note, norberto is gone, hence the clerks office is re-opened for business.

on a sanitary note, the bathrooms on the ground floor of the REG have reached a new level of stench. now it is not even possible to walk down the hall without smelling someone's bombs. i cant beleive that a bathroom can smell that bad, and am now forced to buy into the theory that dade county sprays fecal scented air freshener in all the commodes.

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A U.S. woman held in jail for seven months longer than her original sentence because she was too poor to pay a $705 fine was freed on Wednesday, her attorney said.

Ora Lee Hurley was ordered to pay the fine and sentenced in August 2005 to 120 days in jail after she was convicted in Georgia of possession of cocaine for personal use and breaking the terms of probation for a similar offense 15 years before.

She served the sentence at Atlanta's Gateway Diversion Center, a halfway house that allows its inmates out on day-release to work as long as they pay room and board.

Hurley, 45, worked at a restaurant earning $700 a month and was supposed to pay the fine with that money, according to a petition filed this week.

But monthly bills including a $600 payment to the center and $52 for transportation left her with only $23.22, out of which she also had to buy soap, toothpaste and other items.

Once the sentence was completed in February she was detained further because the fine, which dated back to the original probation terms from 1990, had not been paid.

"The justice system is designed with the intention that the amount of money you have should not factor into the length of time that you are in prison. But that's not the reality here," said attorney Sarah Geraghty of the Southern Center for Human Rights.

A petition filed on Hurley's behalf by the rights center argued that her imprisonment violated constitutional principles "which prohibit imprisoning a person whose poverty makes it impossible to pay a fine."

Hurley said she paid $7,643 in all but nobody explained why so little of that money went toward paying off the debt.

"I went through my little anger stage but I feel a lot better now that something has been done," she said from her home in Americus, Georgia. "It feels good (to be home). I have been away from home for 14 months."

Hundreds of people in Georgia alone may have suffered extended periods of incarceration due to the failure to pay fines, Geraghty said.

Ivan didn't lose because of D'Arce although that albatross certainly helped. Ivan lost because he simply wasn't a good judge and did none of the things necessary to remain on the bench. Being a good judge means you actually work for the public good rather than your own. You care about the cases and make yourself accessible rather than invisible. And you don't allow your employee to direct you, rather, you direct the employee.

He deserved opposition and when he got it there was no respect for him and no one there to protect him because he never earned it. Respect is something you earn, it doesn't come by virtue of the robe you wear. He sullied those robes and his loss is the judiciary's gain.

NOVATO, Calif. - A man was convicted of various theft charges, after prosecutors say he stole computers from the courthouse while he was on trial for computer theft.

"It just amazed me that someone could be in the middle of a jury trial for a burglary involving computers and immediately get involved in another burglary at the Civic Center," said sheriff's Sgt. Jerry Niess.

Jon Houston Eipp, 39, of Novato pleaded guilty Monday in three separate cases involving 10 different charges, including burglary, theft, drug possession, attempted auto theft and more.He could be facing nearly five years in prison when he is sentenced next month.

In an interview Monday night at the county jail, Eipp said he stole the computers "for personal reasons."

"I needed help, and I didn't know how to ask for help," he said. "And I guess, in my crazy way, that was my way of asking for help. Help with my drug problems, help with my sanity."

the bathrooms on the third floor are the best. and half empty most of the time. the first floor bathrooms should only be used by inmates and Judge Adrien. the fourth floor bathrooms smell funny no matter what.

An important new report about the death penalty was just released. Many newspapers throughout the State have commented on the issue today. Here is one from the St. Pete Times that warrants reading:

"Broward County's Frank Lee Smith spent 14 years on death row for a crime that DNA evidence finally determined he did not commit. Smith died of cancer protesting his innocence even as the state pushed for his execution. His case is not unique. With 22 death-row inmates exonerated, Florida leads the nation in the number of capital convictions that didn't hold up upon further scrutiny. All told, this group spent 150 years in prison before being set free.

Even to supporters of capital punishment, this fact should cause some discomfort. When the proportion of inmates exonerated equals more than 30 percent of the number executed, there is something about the system that needs fixing.

Those deficiencies have been detailed in a 400-page report generated by leaders from Florida's legal community, including both supporters and opponents of the death penalty. The group put its substantial talent toward diagnosing the problems and offering concrete remedial suggestions for a fairer and more accurate system. Now it is up to the state, which executed Clarence Hill on Wednesday for the murder of a Pensacola police officer, to implement the recommendations.

Many of the findings are consistent with what has been known for a long time. Florida's system is designed to give the accused the appearance of due process rather than providing the resources necessary to do the job right.

The report says that the private counsel on the state's capital collateral registry are often unqualified to do the complicated legal work required in death penalty appeals, and the experience standards should be much higher. Part of the reason that the quality of legal representation is so poor is that the state caps fees at an absurdly low level - so low that the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the caps could be exceeded in extraordinary cases. But even with the high court's ruling, the state Legislature has put up roadblocks to paying these lawyers fairly.

Florida is one of only a handful of states that doesn't require jurors to be unanimous in their recommendations for death. Moreover, judges may override a jury's determination for life imprisonment and unilaterally impose death. It wouldn't cost anything to make our rules conform with procedures adopted in most other death penalty states, which would limit the death penalty to universally agreed-upon cases.

There are a number of other sensible recommendations, including writing statewide protocols for charging defendants with a capital crime as a way of standardizing the penalty. This also wouldn't cost anything, and it would bring a needed uniformity to the state's penal code.

Even those who support the death penalty should be pushing for these changes. No one wants another innocent Frank Lee Smith scheduled to die while the real killer gets away with murder. Only a process that ensures competent representation and reasonable safeguards against the death penalty's overuse will serve justice and our state."